Way back in 2010 I was pretty upset with EA. I am embarrassed enough to say that I have linked to that post myself five times – six, if you include this one. Each of those links was for different reasons but it remains one of my most linked posts by myself. I think it shows a gamer broken with exasperation by a company and an industry that continues to do head shaking things to itself, it’s customers, and it’s employees. Not much has changed in the seven years either as companies do what companies are supposed to do – find ways to maximize revenues, minimize costs, and provide shareholder value. Often at the expense of the consumer. In many ways you could call it a digital, perverse version of Stockholm Syndrome since we continually feed the behaviors that are most often against our longer term goals for quick fixes and “happiness”.
Loot boxes are one component of this and Blognation and traditional media outlets are reporting on whether or not they resemble a form of gambling. I have stated here before, and other places in comments, that while they may not be gambling per se based off of corporate behaviors and their only function to return value to shareholders there is nothing requiring them to be honest in the odds or fair in the chances that those loot boxes will give you want you ultimately want. They do know what you want, the information is there. When I have played 80% of my competitive games as a certain character and there is a skin for that character only available in a certain loot box that I start buying they know exactly what I want. And at that point, they will try to sort out my willpower and extract every last penny they can in my quest to get that one thing. They have, and they will again. I am not going to go deeper into Loot Boxes here as it has been covered better elsewhere and discussed to the small percentage of getting to near death for maximum revenue.
The other component which isn’t so much in your face is the release of as little content as possible to sell additional content as soon as possible. In my EA link at the top their Medal of Honor release waited two full weeks to launch a paid DLC – which was minor, at $10, but the game had so little content to start with it was a pretty bold move. I do believe it was a consumer test to see who would buy and who would backlash. I think it was a successful test because now companies wait a whole 90 days to launch their DLC after their content-light major launch.
Yes, looking at Destiny 2. They just released their first date for their DLC which is December. Of course it was completed before Destiny 2 launched their main game. It’s ready to go and much of it could have been in at launch but it’s better to get your player base bored fast with what you released, and charge them for more content later. It’s a good strategy that is working for them well. Hell, I pre-bought the version that gives me the first two expansion. Which, all three together, would probably make a complete game. I was fooled by the hopes and dreams of a better Destiny, but instead got a heavy does of Reality. Shame on me, of course. Lesson learned.
Voting with my wallet won’t work while there is a sea of people who are fine with it. And that’s okay too. I went through a great phase where I didn’t get caught up in hype and would wait for releases and Blognation reviews (over the paid marketers) and I was just happier then because at least I knew what I was in for and not nearly as disappointed. I don’t remember the last time I was so disappointed by a game or gaming company and I am actually embarrassed that I care so much, that I had such high expectations, and that I feel like I was… conned. Of course it is all on me – they were honest on much of it and if you look at their first development schedule they did the exact same thing – September release, December DLC launch (of content that was already done), then 6 months for the next DLC. 6 months for the third, and then a year for the fourth. It wouldn’t surprise me if they kept to the exact same schedule since it is Destiny 1.5 after all. 😉
Is there a real world equivalent to this digital commercial behavior or is this just part of the new-norm, digitized economy?
Is that not how car sales work? Maybe not over months, but certainly the sticker price does not match the final price. Airline sales as well.
Plus, ya know, don’t buy from EA?
But..Dragon Age.. and Mass Effect.. and… well yeah, EA. Also, don’t buy from Activision too now, right?
Car might work if you say, got your whole car except the doors, and then you had to buy them three months later. Meaning you are driving around without a core component of which you already paid for. Or something like that.
I don’t the situation lends itself well to comparisons.
Dunno, seems like an evolved method of the bait and switch scam to me.